A Bill Gates-backed startup that wants to edit your genes just raised nearly $100 million

Editas has become the first company to price an initial public
offering (IPO) in the US in 2016.

The gene-editing company raised $94.4 million and priced 5.9
million shares at $16 per share, according
to Reuters.

Editas Medicine, a startup based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, that is working on potential uses
for the gene-editing
tool CRISPR-Cas9, plans
to trade under the ticker EDIT, according to documents
filed last month.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a technology that allows scientists to swap a
particular, potentially faulty gene with another, potentially
healthy one. So far, the technology hasn't been used in people —
except in nonviable human embryos — but Editas is
aiming for a 2017 clinical trial.

The company plans to use the IPO proceeds to fund the clinical
trials and preclinical studies, and to expand its technology.
Editas said that it also expects opportunities to expand through
the acquisition of other companies, products, or
technologies and could use some of the funds for those
deals.

Editas has said in the past that it plans to start its
research on a rare eye disorder called Leber
congenital amaurosis (LCA). The condition mainly affects
the retina,
a layer at the back of the eyeball that picks up light and
sends that information to the brain, where it's translated
into images.

Starting at infancy, people with LCA have a hard time seeing
anything other than large, bright shapes.